Erasmus is over! Long live Erasmus+ !

Erasmus is over! Long live Erasmus+ !

Europe's student exchange programme Erasmus is more popular than ever. It has broken a new record in 2012-2013 by benefiting 270.000 European students.

It is over!

But actually Erasmus is over! Erasmus programme had started in 1987 and finished at the end of 2013! But what will happen to those students who have not yet had their turn to enjoy Erasmus? Well, the goed news is, Erasmus is replaced by an even better programme: Erasmus+

Enter Erasmus+

The scope of Erasmus+ is even broader than Erasmus. By the way, although Erasmus is known as the "student exchange programme", actually it was more than that. It was also an exchange programme for academians and the administrative personnel of the universities.

But Erasmus+ goes further than Erasmus. Erasmus was for Education and Training. Erasmus+ will cover also Youth and Sports, as well as Education and Training. The new programme acually brings together seven already existing EU programmes in the fields of Education, Training, and Youth; Added to this is a new area: Sport. In the Sports field, Erasmus+ aims to support citizens' initiatives as well as fighting match-fixing, doping, violence and racism.

European Union claims Erasmus+ will also increase the access to the programme with "simplified funding rules".

Erasmus+ is oficially defined as "will support transnational partnerships among Education, Training, and Youth institutions and organisations to foster cooperation and bridge the worlds of Education and work in order to tackle the skills gaps we are facing in Europe". Fancy wording but what does it mean? We will hopefully understand in the coming years. But one thing is sure; what we care as students, the "student exchange" part of the programme will continue.

14,7 billion budget! 4 million Europeans!

Erasmus+ has started in January 2014 and will run for 6 years until the end of 2020. It has a budget of 14,7 billion euro, a 40% increase over Erasmus. Total 4 million Europeans will benefit from Erasmus+.